thumb|300px|A materials recovery facility for the recycling of domestic waste

thumb|Clean materials recovery facility recycling video

A materials recovery facility, recycling center, recycling factory, materials reclamation facility, materials recycling facility or multi re-use facility (MRF, pronounced "murf") is a specialized waste sorting and recycling system that receives, separates and prepares recyclable materials for marketing to end-user manufacturers. Generally, the main recyclable materials include ferrous metal, non-ferrous metal, plastics, paper, glass. Organic food waste is used to assist anaerobic digestion or composting. Inorganic inert waste is used to make building materials. Non-recyclable high calorific value waste is used to making refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and solid recovered fuel (SRF).

Industry and locations

In the United States, there are over 300 materials recovery facilities. The total market size is estimated at $6.6B as of 2019.

As of 2016, the top 75 were headed by Sims Municipal Recycling out of Brooklyn, New York. Waste Management operated 95 MRF facilities total, with 26 in the top 75. ReCommunity operated 6 in the top 75. Republic Services operated 6 in the top 75. Waste Connections operated 4 in the top 75.

Business economics

In 2018, a survey in the Northeast United States found that the processing cost per ton was $82, versus a value of around $45 per ton. Composition of the ton included 28% mixed paper and 24% old corrugated containers (OCC). Three paper mill companies have announced initiatives to use more recycled fiber.

Glass recycling is expensive for these facilities, but a study estimated that costs could be cut significantly by investments in improved glass processing. In Texas, Austin and Houston have facilities which have invested glass recycling, built and operated by Balcones Recycling and FCC Environment, respectively.

Robots have spread across the industry, helping with sorting.

Process

Waste enters a MRF when it is dumped onto the tipping floor by the collection trucks. The materials are then scooped up and placed onto conveyor belts, which transports it to the pre-sorting area. Here, human workers remove some items that are not recyclable, which will either be sent to a landfill or an incinerator.

The glass and plastic streams are separated by further disk screens. The glass is crushed into cullet for ease of transportation. The plastics are then separated by polymer type, often using infrared technology (optical sorting). Infrared light reflects differently off different polymer types; once identified, a jet of air shoots the plastic into the appropriate bin. MRFs might only collect and recycle a few polymers of plastic, sending the rest to landfills or incinerators. The separated materials are baled and sent to the shipping dock of the facility.

Wet MRF

right|thumbnail|A wet materials recovery facility

Around 2004, new mechanical biological treatment technologies were beginning to utilise wet MRFs. These combine a dirty MRF with water, which acts to densify, separate and clean the output streams. It also hydrocrushes and dissolves biodegradable organics in solution to make them suitable for anaerobic digestion.

History

In the United States, modern MRFs began in the 1970s. Peter Karter established Resource Recovery Systems, Inc. in Branford, Connecticut, the "first materials recovery facility (MRF)" in the US.

See also

  • Cradle-to-cradle design
  • Curbside collection
  • List of waste treatment technologies
  • List of waste types
  • Mechanical biological treatment
  • Resource recovery
  • Transfer station (waste management)
  • Waste characterization
  • Waste sorting

References

  • "Coming soon! van der Linde's amazing recycling machine"
  • "Materials Recovery Facility Solutions"
  • The Role of MRFS in Modern Day Waste Management